‘Absent’ fathers on the rise

Fathers present are making kids a priority

While Father’s Day is a day of cookouts, homemade cards and appreciation for some, for others it’s a reminder of what they’ve been missing.
A new National Survey of Family Growth study analyzed by the Pew Research Center revealed good news and bad news for fathers and their children. The NSFG study found that fathers living in the same home as their children are spending more quality time with them, but the number of absent fathers has increased.
As shown in a graph from U.S. Census Bureau population surveys, more than one-in-four fathers with children 18 and younger now live apart from their children. Only 11 percent of children in the U.S. lived apart from their fathers in 1960. That number increased to 27 percent by 2010.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey and 1960 Census of Population. Graph: Pew Research Center

The Huffington Post hit some of the study’s highlights. Gretchen Livingston, co-author of the analysis report, said an increase in divorce rates and a decrease in marriage rates could be partially to blame for the increase in absent fathers.
“We see that the share of children living apart from their dads has more than doubled from 11 percent in 1960 to 27 percent in 2008, and at that same time we see that three-fold increase in divorce,” she said. “Clearly the trends fit together.”
Pew also found that income, education, age, race and ethnicity are strong indicators of whether a father lives in the same home as his children. Fathers with less income and education are more likely to be an absent father.
About 44 percent of Black fathers live separately from their children, but only 21 percent of white fathers live separately. Thirty-five percent of Hispanic fathers live separately.
"Whites do have lower divorce rates and they are less likely to live apart from their kids; blacks do have higher divorce rates and they are more likely to live apart from their kids," Livingston told the Huffington Post. "But with Hispanics, they actually have relatively low divorce rates but you see that they are more likely to live apart from their kids than whites."
The good news is that Pew found that the father’s role in the home is changing for the better. In 1965, fathers with children in the home only spent 2.6 hours a week caring for the children. In 2000, married fathers spent 6.5 hours a week carrying for the children.
Illustrated in a graph based on fathers with children between the ages of 5-18, fathers living with their children clearly spend more time that the fathers who live apart from their children.

Source: Pew Research Center calculations of the 2006-08 National Survey of Family Growth. Graphic: Pew Research Center

An article from PR Newswire reported that National Fatherhood Initiative research found that about 24 million children live without their father in the home. The organization’s data, outlined in the sixth-edition research book “Father Facts,” found that “across nearly every measure of child well-being – academic, economic, behavioral, emotional, and social – children who live absent their fathers are significantly more likely to suffer negative consequences.”
In the video from the Associated Press, President Obama uses his weekly address to discuss the importance of being a good father. His tips during the address included quality time, structure and unconditional love.

Source: The Associated Press

President Obama weekly address: "Father's Day"